Wow, thanks for the responses, everyone! Much appreciated.
I certainly think for solving hard levels, it is fantastic indeed.
I created the Level Solving Contest back in 2018 to prove everyone of their solving ability. This was a record-keeping contest where participants were given a long period of time to solve large levels (Like that last level of Lemmings United for example) but the number of routes to take depend on certain criteria. With skill numbers that you would expect to see in the Fun ratings (Or even Multiplayer), this type of contest was intended to be a breather to all the hard, technical levels. It was quite a popular contest when it first came out with ten entrants (including myself) participating, but then the popularity declined and it came to an end in 2019. Sure, it would be nice to revive the contest if there's enough interest (Oh, and if you're interested, too!). Seeing newer faces take part would certainly bring the enjoyment back in Lemmings.
Thanks a bunch Minim!
Absolutely, you can certainly count me in for the level solving contest
What I would rate even higher than solving some difficult levels is the way you handled roadblocks to be honest. You kept going and not just threw in the towel. This is a way more powerful weapon than seing the trick of a bunch of difficult levels.
It's even ok to ask for a slight hint every now and then to maybe rule out a few of the many possible ways.
Absolutely, perseverance is key. I definitely am one to avoid asking for hints on the levels, and I did for a time felt extremely bad doing so for United starting with the rank finisher of Neutrality, but after a point I realized that there's no shame in doing so, especially for a pack like United. I know that even Armani asked for help in the Neutrality rank. This was also the case for me, although only for the rank finisher of Neutrality, which surprisingly was the level that stumped me the longest out of all the other levels in the pack, about 4 months! Still, it's a wonder how that trick at the bottom escaped me for so long, and I certainly felt very dumb that I never figured that out much sooner, as well as how I kept taking a slightly incorrect route that I never eliminated as being wrong until you patched it out.
For the record, United is the only pack so far I have ever had to ask for hints. I got through Reunion, Lemmings Plus Alpha, and even Lemmings Stampede without them, but for Reunion to be fair that was at a time when I had just visited the forums to read the posts and haven't yet made myself known to the community. Also on Lemmini, too! At the same time, I realized that you asked for a hint for a Bonus level from RotL for Lemmini even though you also hated doing so, and you later replied that "you never would had come up with the idea needed to solve the level on your own," and I definitely know your status as being one of the best solvers there is here on the forums. To be fair, though, it's a rank where glitches are needed to solve them, and just so you know I'm indifferent about glitches, but I'm more towards the "I don't like these levels" just like you, as I feel that skills should behave predictably and produce logical results, not unpredictably and illogical results!
So again, I shouldn't feel bad that I had to ask for help for various levels of United. It also stems from how I generally prefer to do things solo, as I generally have some trouble working with others on team projects, for example. This is not to say that I won't ever do collab/tag team levels, though! I certainly don't mind them, and probably would love to do at least one at some point. All I'm getting at is that I prefer going solo as much as possible. Then and only then when I'm truly truly stuck then I start asking for help. Of course, seeing how this is a very friendly community, I definitely shouldn't feel afraid asking for help. This was definitely the case when I was first starting out here on the forums where I didn't post much in the first month, but other than that it's also due to how I was really busy playing level packs at the time.
What I appreciate very much about the hints is how you don't give the answer away, but rather made them vague enough so that they got me thinking and still allowed me to figure out the solution for myself without giving any of it away.
That's exactly what I would do: When it comes to helping others solve levels, my goal is to not give the solution away, but rather guide them towards the solution with hints without giving anything majorly away and help them develop their thinking and solving skills. This is the exact same approach I use with my students when I want to help them learn the math.
For everyone who stumbles on this topic, here's some background/insight on United that I did in another topic from several hours ago that I probably should had waited to post here instead that I would like to reproduce here:
This is the start of it:
Icho knows from my posts in his United topic that I have failed on many of his levels over and over, but did that stop me in my quest to conquer his pack? Not at all! Even the difficulty tag of [hard-extreme] that he attached to the level pack title didn't scare me away from taking on the pack
Did I want to give up at times? Yes, but I still persevered and made it through all 238 levels, Bonus rank and all. Here, I have to say that it was thanks to Icho's encouragement, as well as yours eric, that allowed me to continue through to the very end, even when the going got very tough as I inched deeper and deeper into the Genocide rank, which was the rank that I initially feared when I first started the rank and thought would finally defeat me as a player and hence end my incredible run at finishing the pack.
Additionally, it was the fact that I made it all the way to the 5th and final rank of the main pack that told me,
"I've come too far to possibly quit now. I must carry on and finish, even when I really wanted to give up for good." Remember the time I started losing hope because I was stumped for several days on Genocide 5 and thought I wasn't good enough and wasn't meant to beat Icho's United pack? Nope, Icho thought otherwise and provided me support and encouragement to keep going! I think way before I got to that point in the pack he was already beyond impressed with my solving abilities, especially with all the backroutes I found in the War rank, and hence was looking forward to more solutions from me.
Come to think of it, I think United is the very first pack I took on in NL. So, it looks like I was daring and decided to go straight for the most difficult pack there was without having played any other packs in NL first, not even the tutorial pack! And this is coming from someone who was a very long time Lemmini/Superlemmini user who had beaten Dovelems, Pimolems, and Reunion on Lemini before taking on United!
I think what helped was how I had visited the forums daily for the past several years, as well as acquainted myself with the NL mechanics via the manual. I had registered for an account a couple of years ago, but I didn't start posting on this forum until earlier this year. IIRC, I was able to get all the way to Neutrality 7 before I truly got stumped and then that's when I took a break from United and played other packs in the meantime. Not bad, huh?
This is the end of the transcript
no its really true I didn't. But this was ages ago long before intro pack and i have picked up a few more skills so maybe i could try again to at least solve one level lol.
You can definitely do it, mantha16!
Now I would like to hear people's thoughts on the feedback I've given. Of course, mostly Icho and Strato will be able to provide me their insight, as I've given both of them extensive feedback out of everyone else so far, although if namida has read my feedback on his LPA pack he's more than welcome to let me know how it is. Not just pack authors, but anyone who has been reading my feedback is more than welcome to provide their input about my feedback I've given.